Keji 2008: Sponge Bobbie Squarejacket

June has come and gone, and interpretive programs are now in full-swing! June was a busy month with preparations for summer interpretive programs and Blanding’s turtles were nesting. These turtles are really neat in that once the females mature, they continue to go back to the same site to nest year after year. Volunteers and staff go out nightly for the month, and if a turtle is sighted and lays her eggs, the nest is protected from predators with an enclosure. Hatchlings will come out in the fall, and researchers will monitor the nests once again so that they can mark and release them. Watching the Blanding’s turtles nest was a unique experience. The turtles go into a trance once they start laying their eggs, and become oblivious to all else around them. They lay typically around 10 eggs, and the whole process takes a few hours. First, she digs a hole, then lays her eggs (each time she lays one, her head juts way out, then back into her shell to squeeze the egg out), then she covers the eggs and conceals the nest so that it is practically indistinguishable from the surrounding surface. Afterwards, people sit around the campfire with a beer and snacks, which sometimes happens at a pretty late hour depending on when the turtles have finished nesting for the night.
I took a canoe training course – a level B certification is necessary for doing interpretive paddles. It was a fun day of practicing different strokes and movements in the canoe. The best part was the canoe rescue and in-water portion of the course. If a canoe is submerged, one of the methods to get it to shore is to get in it, full of water, and paddle back, which was a lot of fun! Only, I didn’t realize how large my PFD was, and after I jumped out of the canoe, the back part went right up over my head so that from behind, I looked like a relative of Sponge Bob… Sponge Bobbi Squarejacket!
My first Snake n’ Bake, Shell Raisers and Pirates of the Kejimkujik went smoothly, and the rest of the summer is looking promising. Snake n’ Bake is a hike on snakes of Nova Scotia, with an emphasis on the threatened ribbon snake. Shell Raisers is a paddle on turtles of Keji, with a focus on Blanding’s turtle research, and finally Pirates is a kids paddle (we sing YO HO, YO HO, A PIRATES LIFE FOR ME as loud as we can, or at least we try to get the kids to sing along!)
I’ve been out with researchers, learning more about their turtle and ribbon snake research. There was one day I went for a paddle with a turtle researcher doing GPS logging. We had gone up a brook and reached a point where logs were blocking our progress. I hopped out, and when it was time to get back in… I ended up teetering and falling into the brook – well, it was refreshing anyhow!
Recently, we had a big event at Keji – Blanding’s turtle release day! With over 200 people, the media and important people from all over, I ended up being part of the camera and bbq crew. I swear, I’ve never cooked so many burgers or hotdogs in my life! I was throwing hamburgers on the grill like Frisbees and yelling out “who wants hot dogs!!” to the mile-long line up for food! Turns out most people prefer hamburgers… The event was to celebrate the release of 34 Blanding’s who had been captively reared for the last 2 years (given lots of food and warmth to increase their growth and consequently their survival rates). We’ll be keeping track of their progress with radio transmitters over the summer.
I had a lovely weekend with my aunt Diane – we started off at old friends, the Kidson’s organic farm in Centreville, stayed overnight on their refurbished sailboat in the Dartmouth harbor right by the ferry terminal, toured Halifax, Peggy’s Cove and Hubbards. We visited my grandfather’s grave, shopped at Mountain Equipment Co-op and the market, sat at cafés sipping lattes, drove along the coast to Hubbards, strolled around Peggy’s Cove, and rode the ferry across the harbor with a gorgeous sunset, it was quite the weekend!

Keji 2008: for the shell of it

Turtle Trivia: For those of you who don’t know what the Blanding’s turtle looks like, they have a black shell, with yellow speckles, a yellow throat and underbelly. They are a bit larger than painted turtles and do occur in certain regions of Ontario in addition to this small region in Nova Scotia. They are classified as endangered in Nova Scotia, but threatened nation-wide. I find it neat that Blanding’s turtles (and all other turtle) females have flat bellies, whereas the males have a convex belly – why is this… well, turtles have to procreate too, don’t they! Having a shell can make things awkward, so the shape of the underbelly aids in mating. There are other ways to tell males and females apart, but in addition to the shape of their bellies, the size of the tail and location of their cloaca (universal bum-reproductive hole) are the best indicators (they can breathe through that hole too). Blanding’s turtles don’t reach maturity until they are around 21 years old, and can live to be over 80. Those who actually survive that long don’t stop reproducing until death -there are no golden years for the turtle…
Hey, I think the park interpreter in me is taking over… I may be shoving too many facts your way in this email! However, it’s been enlightening getting into the mindset of an interpreter… those of us in science don’t realize how little the general public actually knows about scientific genre. I particularly realized this after a group of high school biology students came to visit for the day. Such as many people don’t know what a species at risk is, yet it’s such common knowledge for many of us who have taken biology (by the way, it means that the survival of a group of living things is at stake). We can prattle on about permeability of oxygen through derma in an anuran, when all people really want to know is that it simply means that frogs breathe through their skin. It’s taken some work to take a few steps back in order to explain things in a simpler way, and make it interesting too!
One thing that this province has, that I’ve never experienced elsewhere is… ticks!! You wouldn’t believe how many ticks I have gotten on my body since I’ve been here! The girls I live/work with call me a tick magnet, since they can’t believe how many get on me. Is there Lyme disease here? Yes! So, I check myself thoroughly after each day out in the field… I even found one that was a little too close for my liking to a rather sensitive region of my body!
I spent a weekend with a friend, Krisi and her husband, Marcus, both whom I hadn’t seen in years. They have a beautiful farm near Tatamagouche (about a 3 hr drive from where I am), which overlooks the Northhumberland Strait (right across from Prince Edward Island), with ten horses, four cats and four dogs. It was so great to see them both again, and with even hopped on one of her young horses – a gray, named Revenge. I’m sure I’ll be visiting again as the summer goes on!
Those of us involved with the turtle research got some entertainment recently, when we fed the blanding’s turtles in the Visitor’s Centre some live minnows. Their necks are surprisingly long, and for at least ten minutes, we all stood there watching the little turtles swim with all their might, with their necks stretched out as far as they could go, after the minnows: back and forth in the tank, crashing into the sides of it, and rocks within. After finally catching a minnow, it was carnage… shredded fish bits as the turtles use their front claws to tear at the food in their mouths (turtles don’t have teeth), but interesting to watch… well, at least I think it’s pretty cool! We’ve started to introduce live food to the turtles, to prepare them for their release into the wild later on this summer.
One of the researchers found an unmarked Blanding’s turtle crossing the road, which was pretty exciting… unmarked? It means that the turtle didn’t have notches engraved into certain scutes (like scales, there are 12 on either side) of her carapace (upper shell). I was able to take her into the local research facility, called the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute (MTRI), and went through the works of how we monitor and keep track the Blanding’s turtles. Notches were put in with a type of nail file, so that she can be identified if caught again in the future. Her plastron (belly shell) was scanned by a flatbed scanner for pictorial reference. Turtles have rings of growth, like a tree and each is unique to the individual like a fingerprint to us. Various measurements of length, height and weight, as well as blood sampling for genetic analyses are part of the work-up. She was even outfitted with a radio transmitter, glued onto her shell by epoxy, so that researchers can track her movements in the future. I’ll be doing a fair bit of catching and data collecting on the Blanding’s turtles in the park, but who’s to say how many have yet to be found for the first time!
Well… back to ‘shellraising’ around here! (by the way, Shellraisers is the name of the interpretive paddle I’m giving this summer... it is focused on the turtles of Nova Scotia)

Keji 2008: fire, land, and water

Kejimkujik has a seaside adjunct, which is not part of the main park, but rather just over an hour’s drive away. It is right on the Atlantic coast, with white sand beaches and turquoise water. I got to spend the entire day at the seaside adjunct, with a number of other staff (new and old), which was awesome. Cormorants were seen drying their outstretched wings on rocks, and harbor seals basking on another. The day included an interpretive hike, lunch on the beach, and observations of the piping plover, a shore bird that is at risk in Nova Scotia. We were with a warden, who took the group onto the protected plover beach (closed to the public). We saw a number of pairs, and discovered a nest near the lagoon (where salt water runs in behind sand dunes, a very productive area) I’ve always been a fan of the ocean, and can’t wait to go back!
I got my first taste of Keji’s backcountry when I went out with one of the scientists to investigate a wetland area – we wanted to see if it was a fen or a bog, for water quality samples, data logging, etc. Him and I had to drive about a half hour along this unmaintained gravel road to a portage point. From there, we had to canoe to a location by gps that was taken from a satellite prior to the trip (but satellites can’t tell if an area is a fen or a bog). We had lunch in the canoe, in the middle of a lake so quiet that the loon calls were amplified all around. It was pretty neat! Unfortunately, the wetland turned out to be a fen (has different vegetation and less water in it than a bog), and we had to return with all our gear and no samples.
Keji’s visitor centre has four “head start” blanding’s turtles, which means hatchlings of these endangered species are incubated so that they mature quicker and have a head start in comparison to their counterparts in the wild. These turtles have to be hand fed every other day, which means they have to be separated and put in individual enclosures outside of their tank. They get fed frozen fish concoctions (scraped into slivers with a razor), and fish food. It’s interesting to watch them, and I have to hang around until they are done feeding, to put them back into their large tank and get fresh water from the lake for the next feeding. Blanding’s turtles are about the same size as the common painted turtle, but has a black shell with yellow speckles and a yellow throat/underbelly. I will be doing various things related to the blanding’s turtle this summer, and have been learning lots about their ecology etc.
Over the long weekend, I went out for a paddle with a few people from the area – 3 canoes. We left around 10:15pm, paddled for about 2hrs on the Kejimkujik Lake, with a portage in the middle. Canoeing on the Keji lake at night was a completely different experience. The water, already naturally dark from tannins leached from the surrounding wetlands, looked black. It looked to me like I was canoeing on top of an oil spill, and could vaguely see the ripples of the water ahead. The only sounds I could really hear were crickets and the lapping of the water, which was really peaceful. At one point, the moon was clear of clouds and was amazing with its reflection on the water.
At one end of the park, a few km’s from the visitor’s centre is an old fish hatchery, right on the Grafton River and wetland. Park interpreters and heritage presenters share this pretty old building. The fish hatchery was there before the park came into existence (back in 1967, the hatchery itself in the 1930’s). The surrounding area is a prime site for blanding’s turtles, ribbon snakes and coastal plain flora – all species at risk and this is where my office is located! It is complete with a document library, kitchen, and a fabulous view. The house I’m staying in is just beyond the entrance to the park, by the warden and ecologist buildings. There will be six of us, three rooms… one bathroom.
I had a very easy going and pleasant day with a few other parks staff at a place called the Stone Bear Lodge, on the Bear River Reserve, nearby the park. It is run by a retired Mi’kmaw chief more or less as a retreat. The day consisted of reflective talks, sage snuffing, sitting around a wood fire, interpretive walks with insight into a native view of nature and wildlife. The place was beautiful, with a lush mossy cedar/pine forest, and a brook running through it. There were several teepees and log cabins for various uses, including a traditional sweat house. All of us were somewhat surprised at how the atmosphere brought out a different side to us, revealing personal and sometimes emotional details that we often wouldn’t share with strangers, with a serene calming effect associated with it. It was like a trance came over us once a feather was passed, and words just flow out while everyone else listened and reflected. Afterwards, everyone felt refreshed and at peace with the world. This experience I had just goes to show that all of us can get quite caught up in the fast pace of the world, worry about the future, dwell in the past, but not so much live in the moment. A piece of advice to all of you – take some time out for yourself, and reflect.

Keji 2008: the end of an era

With summer rapidly approaching, and many changes in my life as of late, it’s about time that I sent an update around to all of you! Since I sent out my final Wapusk update last August, I’m sure you can imagine that much has happened since then. Leaving off from way back in August 2007, it was a long drive home, from Thompson, Manitoba to Guelph, Ontario, for more reasons than I care to elaborate on in this email. Yet, it was a pretty one, with the coniferous forest and natural landscapes on each side of our Northern route, instead of the mass urbanization seen in Southern Ontario. No doubt, it took some getting used to, back in the old routine at home, although wonderful to see family and friends again. Not long after I arrived home, I moved into an apartment with one of my previous roommates, Jill, for our fourth year at U of Guelph. We had a great time living together, with I admit, more fun and games than any other year. These final two semesters as an undergrad flew right past, and I can officially say that I have a Bachelor of Science degree, with honours in Zoology, and a minor in Psychology. What a good feeling, to be done after a stretch of 20 or so years of school. I’ve said good-bye to the good friends I made throughout university, whom I consider friends for life. I’ve come to realize that this is the end of an era… there is so much more to be seen and done in this world, so many new people to meet and a new chapter to begin in life.
Anyways, back to what I was up to over the last few months… Over the Christmas holidays, I returned to Churchill for 2 weeks. Returning was like coming home again, the familiar faces and company was awesome. The town and the people may have been familiar, yet the winter season there was a whole new experience. Daily temperatures of -25 and below kept me in 4+ layers, top and bottom, but certainly not indoors. The scenery was of course white with snow, barren and beautiful. Most of the days were sunny, and the air clean and crisp. The Churchill River was frozen over by then, and the belugas and polar bears gone. Yet, there were still some hardy animals that stuck out winter in the area. By four-wheeler and snowmobile, Leonard and I were able to cross the river to hunt ptarmigans (Arctic chickens), keeping warm with Baileys and tea. Ptarmigan was not the only interesting meat I had during my stay. Canada goose from the fall hunting season, Arctic Char from North of Churchill, and caribou steaks were part of the menu too. One weekend, three of us spent at a cabin in the bush, to hunt caribou. It was there, that I shot a caribou, for the first time! It was shot with a rifle that had a scope, something I’d never used before. The cabin we stayed in was small, but cozy with its wood stove. We melted ice from the river, to drink, and ate meals of fried balogne and potatoes, a hearty meal that tastes the best only in the bush. Spending time completely in the wilderness took some getting used to, but I believe I’m hooked – I can’t wait until the next time I get to spend a few days in isolation. Those two weeks up North were over in no time, and it was once again I left the arctic for the South, and look forward to returning again.
In March, Leonard came to visit in Southern Ontario, all the way from near Yellowknife, NWT. The three weeks he spent here were filled with activity. From nightlife in Guelph, to skiing in Ellicotville, New York, visiting in Burlington/Waterloo, Toronto Rock Lacrosse and the Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame, an NHL game in Ottawa, and a visit to the Museum of Civilization, in the Gatineau of Quebec, Leonard got the whole 9 yards of this part of Canada! We had a great time, and his visit was a great distraction from that last drag of university :)
I said good-bye to Melody at the end of March, since she has been contracted on a year’s lease to a very kind woman, named Denise. Denise aims to enjoy having a horse, and riding dressage at an immaculate private farm, not far from Guelph. I have no doubt that Melody will be in the best of care, and will be absolutely lavished with love during her stay. It will be a welcome and different lifestyle not being in the saddle, or rather an equestrian saddle, for a year. I plan to be in the seat of a mountain bike - I have yet to break it in, but I look forward to the adventures I hope to have with this cool new bike. I never thought that I would be giving up riding to any extent, but it just goes to show that life goes on and things change.
After exams, I went back to Manitoba for 2 weeks. The first weekend, in the Forks of Winnipeg. The Forks was a well-landscaped national historic site right in the heart of the city by the river. It was a somewhat busy weekend shopping and visiting others in the city, but fun! I was lucky to have had another chance to party with people from Churchill, at a wedding, which of course was a good time. After the wedding weekend, I flew to Flin Flon, Manitoba to visit with Leonard. I was in this mining town that sits on the border of Manitoba and Saskatchewan for the next couple of days. I took the time there to relax, sleep, and enjoy reading novels, watching movies and just hanging out in a quiet place, for a change. On one of those days, we took a day trip to Wanless and the Pas, which are other towns not far from Flin Flon, visited people along the way. I was in Ontario for a few days after my trip, to speak at a conference for VOICE for hearing impaired children. Shortly after, Jill and I drove East, to Nova Scotia. We stopped in Montreal to say hi to Stu (cousin) and Matt (old neighbor), stopped for lunch in Quebec City, saw the famous rocks on the Bay of Fundy (not far from Fundy National Park), took a ferry from St. John, New Brunswick to Digby, Nova Scotia and drove to Kejimkujik National Park.
So yes, this summer I will be at Kejimkujik National Park! I will be taking part in various research on species at risk in the park, and interpretive hikes/paddles. My first few days have been basically an introduction to the park and its people. It has a rather large staff for a park of its size, but naturally everyone is quite friendly. On my first day, my boss took myself and a few others on a canoe excursion on one of the rivers. It just so happened that it was a rather windy day, and being an inexperienced paddler with a flat-bottomed canoe, myself and a colleague, Heather, fought to keep the canoe upright… yet sure enough, the wind caught the edge of the canoe and the canoe tipped right over on top of me! It was somewhat of a shock going into not so warm water, but funny more than anything.
Geez… I’ve practically written a novel here, and have so much more to tell, but I’ll save that for another time. Take care guys!

Wapusk 2007: living life to its fullest

Well, it’s only a few more days until I leave Churchill! Countdown until I return to the apparent record heat waves from the cool sub-arctic.

After the course, I was glad to return to work, and to have my evenings free once again, but not so happy I had to say good-bye to my new friends. The students and researchers taking the train came into town on the Saturday to explore, and have one last dinner together. We went out to the Lazy Bear Lodge, and I tried musk ox for the first time. This was where some of the students gave an odd gift to the teaching assistant, Kevin. It was half of a chain mail glove, likely with some relation to the medieval era. When turned upside down with the two fingers hanging, it was rather peculiar looking (see pictures on Kodak gallery to get a better idea of what it looked like).

My week at work was a mixture of random projects not related to bug collection, for my boss. It was nice to have my attention focused on Parks-related matters for a change, even if it meant sitting in the office on a nice day. One of the things he had me do was count the number of caribou in this picture taken of a large herd from a helicopter. My estimate after several counts was over 2900 animals. It was rather a challenge because the picture was not very clear, and was taken from an angle, but I made do!

A friend of mine lost a dog across the river. We spent an evening searching for Scruffy (a little poodle) by boat, while whales and seals were playing all around us. Not such a bad way to spend the evening! Turns out we found Scruffy at the quarry seven days after he ran away (more about this later).

My long weekend was filled with adventures – nights out in town, and cruising around made it go by quickly. I visited a building called the golf balls, which has these large fiberglass covered spheres on top. It is now abandoned, but once used for radiotelemetry or something of the sort, long ago. Inside, there were lots of strange equipment and shiny material that it looked like it was the remnants of a spaceship designed in the 50’s. Another adventure was a walk out to the Ithaca shipwreck during low tide (it’s filled with about 8 feet of water during high tide). The ship is falling apart, but it was pretty neat to climb inside, and take a few shots (with what, a shotgun!) at the light socket that hung from the mast (you can see this socket in the picture looking upwards through the ship).

A bunch of us took a trip to the quarry, which was this place that was blown up to use rocks to create a dam, called the Weir. I borrowed a canoe from a colleague, and rode in the back of a pick-up truck, in the canoe, to the marina – that was fun. With three others, all our gear and Smokey, the dog, we managed to canoe across the turbulent waters by the dam to the quarry. When we arrived, my friend Samantha was blew her whistle to alert any bears, and sure enough it called Scruffy. Everyone thought that tiny little dog was dead by that time, so it was a miracle he was still alive! The quarry has a 40-foot drop into Caribbean-turquoise water (from the limestone, much like the Bruce Peninsula). Sure enough, I jumped off into the frigid waters, and somehow pulled a muscle in my leg pretty severely. I took no more jumps – didn’t want to push my luck! It was fun, though. We had hotdogs over an open fire and snacks while we were there, and I made sure that Scruffy got plenty of food as well, and the kids gave him lots of TLC. With it being a small town, it didn’t take long before my friend found out about the dog – so much for it being a surprise!

On the last day of the long weekend, I went out for an ATV excursion, along the tundra buggy trails (in search for bears). Indeed, there were two bears that took off at the sight of the 4-wheeler, so we hung around until they came back and settled down. Funny thing was that as we were watching the bears, a helicopter circled over top of us, and happened to have my colleague Janine in it (she had gone for a week or so to do some goose banding in the park). The people in the helicopter were so focused on the bears, they didn’t notice us down on the ground, waving (even with my yellow bandana). Bit by bit, we got closer to one of the bears, and the result was a wild picture of me standing with the bear 20 metres behind me, definitely something to hold onto.

Also on that excursion, we came across some caribou, and an Arctic fox den. What a bold little creature that fox was – I got some great pictures and video footage of it as it came out of its den and such. In my exploration of the fox den, I sunk into part of it, because the ground on top is not very sturdy with all of the underground tunnels… luckily I didn’t fall in too far (just up to my ankles), whoops.

Another colleague of mine has a dirt bike that he uses to get around town. Last week, he taught me how to drive it, and I spent the evening cruising up and down the streets of Churchill and down to the Cape Merry National Historic Site. It wasn’t as difficult as I imagined – my standard car probably made the shifting come naturally to me. Although, after hearing about mom’s not so fortunate experience with a dirt bike when she was my age (and the fact that I wasn’t wearing a helmet), I was careful not to pop the clutch or go reeling around corners.

I bought myself a hoodie sweatshirt from the Churchill Northern Studies Centre gift shop, as a souvenir of my time spent there during the course. It was brand new, off the shelf, but as I was trying it on later, I noticed that the pocket was rather bulky… I reached in, and pulled out a lacy thong!!! What are the odds?

The last couple of days have been tame in comparison to my wild long weekend (aside from my CSNC sweatshirt purchase)… summer is winding down in Churchill: the days are getting shorter and colder, and people are away for various reason. I’ve been doing lots of overtime trying to get everything packed up… and I will be home real soon! Looking forward to seeing you all.

Wapusk 2007: the dark side

Where to begin… I cannot express how much has happened in the past few weeks, emotionally, and agenda-wise. This part of my update I cannot post to the world, but am sending to you special few. It’s behind the scenes of all the fun and lively things you’ve read about in my past updates. Turmoil with my job, and colleague has made life a little on the stressful side than what it should be in Churchill. Facebook’s horoscope (if you believe those things) for the past week said the following: “Aries: you have been forced to interact with some difficult personalities lately, but you are about to get a break from their craziness. Finally”. I cannot say how true that horoscope was (and oddly enough so many other ones too). My professor/boss from the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at U of G was here for the past two weeks for the Arctic Ecology course (finished yesterday). I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say that I (and my colleague) was given inadequate training, instruction, and no support from U of Guelph in this brand new initiative with Parks Canada, and people have just realized this now. Most of you know that I really enjoy learning about and working for Parks Canada. This job was supposed to have Parks-related tasks integrated into my summer schedule, but because Dr. Hebert was so dissatisfied, it looks like the rest of the summer will be almost entirely focused on collection of specimens for his project (which it pretty much has been, anyways, and everything has to be done Paul’s way). So that’s work, and a test life has thrown my way this summer has been as my horoscope described above. This professor, my colleague and the graduate student I assisted in Wapusk have taught me to exercise patience, acceptance of criticism and management of conflict. It was just as I feared, that living, partying and working side-by-side with someone 24/7 has taken a bad turn, which certainly doesn’t help when combined with the above job issues too. What I’m going to do about it, I don’t know yet. Right now, I’m just trying to stick it through, stay optimistic, and think of you guys!

The student life:

My past fourteen days were spent as a student in the Arctic Ecology course at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre (CNSC). Days were long, an 8 am start, and not finishing until after 10 most nights, then a drive back to town to crash on my own bed, before waking up the next day to start all over again. It’s not as if the course required people to stay so late, but participation is key, and there’s always something to do… all in all, it was a great experience. Occasionally, a seminar/lecture would take place after dinner – they consisted of the work conducted by various researchers, such as the nematode (worm-like creatures) research one guy did in the Antarctic (he had some cute pictures of the penguins there), and the research done by another scientist in Greenland/Iceland/High Arctic. They were mostly interesting, but the incredibly stuffy and dark room (and a full stomach) made it difficult to stay focused at times. The first week of the course was spent sampling at various sites around Churchill, to familiarize students with the area and give them an idea of what organisms are present in this sub-Arctic region. The second week, students formulated their individual project goals and went to sites of their choice. My project focuses on the biodiversity of amphipods, which are shrimp-like creatures that live in the marine intertidal zone, in relation to variations in salinity and habitat. I chose them because they are quite abundant (straightforward to collect, and all over the place), and I love being on or near water. On purpose, I got away from the crowd of students, and into town one morning to collect around there (I borrowed an ATV and enjoyed my solitude), and another day I arranged for me and two other researchers to go across the river (by boat) to collect at the Prince of Wales Fort National Historic Site (PWF). That was quite enjoyable being on the water all day at PWF, and afterwards we went whale watching, and pretended to be stranded on a buoy in the middle of the river. Other exciting events that were part of the course experience included kayaking with the whales, an all-day tundra buggy tour (we saw nine bears, an Arctic fox, an Arctic hare, a rough-legged hawk, and much more), a walk along Ramsay Trail to see the tundra polygons (natural formations that expose the permafrost beneath the soil) and the buried rocket from the old days when the CNSC was a military rocket launch base. All combined, I’ve seen 12 bears in the last two weeks, so yes, they’re around - it’s the polar bear capital of the world!

Wapusk 2007: the Park

The belugas are plentiful in the river – everywhere, there are white humps appearing and disappearing all over. Before I left for the park, Anaise and Mike from the study centre met up with Janine and I – we all went down to the seaport to have some wine and cheese while watching the belugas and seals in the river at sunset. That was pretty cool.

Wapusk National Park was a whole new experience, last week. There were no roads leading into the park, so our means of getting there was by flight, or snowmobile in the winter-time. This was my first helicopter ride – I got to sit in the front, with the glass panel beneath my feet. The lift-off was unreal, and the scenery was excellent. There were lots of birds flying below – mostly snow geese (who have taken over the park in vast numbers), to me they looked like tiny little white specks moving around below. The park itself was very flat (wide-open), had very few trees – more like sparse clumps of evergreens here and there. Let’s just say that when I had to go, I just had to trust that my colleagues were looking the other way, because the bushes (if any) only went up to my knees, more often than not! I stayed for 9 days at the Nestor 1 camp, which was surrounded by a 10 foot fence, with barbed wire at the top to keep the polar bears out – kind of a role reversal in the sense that it was the humans enclosed behind a fence.

I was there to help a graduate student, Jessica, with her research on human and non-human impacts on the tundra ecosystem. Greg came along as a polar bear monitor (even though we didn’t see any – the other two researchers at the park did though). Basically, Jessica would determine which disturbed habitat she wanted to set up transects in – these were 25 m long, with 5 or 6 quadrats (squares to be sampled) each. I had to learn and familiarize myself with about 30 different species of vegetation – you’d be surprised how much diversity there is if you took a closer look at what’s on the ground. We calculated percentages of each species, soil depth, and more. I did some collection of specimens on the side for the barcode of life project, and set up some pitfall runs after we were done with Jessica’s stuff for the day.

After work, time was spent playing basketball (they have a net set up at camp), playing cribbage, and reading. There was quite a stack of hunting magazines in the kitchen. Now, when you hear me make reference to “my rack”, I’m talking about the antlers… Anyways, while I was out with Jessica and Greg, I saw lots of caribou, and even got up close to them (they walk right past you if you stay really still), an abundance of birds (snow geese, tundra swans, long-spurs…etc.), a lemming, and even an active fox den, with the mom and dad looking after their pups. No polar bears yet, but there were some sighted by other researches just north of the camp (and there have been several around town recently).

The other two researchers were from the states, and after they got back from being out for the day on Canada Day, they let off two shotgun blasts in celebration for us Canadians. We had weather there that ranged from stinking hot with bad bugs, to bloody cold with rain. It just goes to show how quickly the weather can change, based on wind direction (North, off the Bay or from the South). Neverless, I ended up with a tundra tan (hands and face), and realized how much more outdoor field gear I need to get after I return home.

Back in Churchill, I worked my 12th day in a row on Friday, and am now off for five days. Keeping occupied for that time is the current challenge. I tagged along to the gun range with some colleagues on Saturday, and tried out a different shotgun (a police magnum, with spot sights, rather than the usual marine magnum with ghost ring sights). I also got to shoot cracker shells (basically firecrackers that give a really loud bang), and a revolver with caps/firecracker.

On one of my ATV excursions, I visited an old abandoned wildlife research facility near Churchill. It was full of old medical equipment, drugs, animal cages, and even rusted oxygen tanks that had the University of Guelph printed on them! Apparently, back in the 70’s and 80’s, nasty experiments were undertaken there on polar bears (effects of crude oil on them), and on other marine life. Creepy…